The presently disclosed and/or claimed inventive concept(s) is directed to a beverage preparation machine capable of determining a beverage volume of receptacles and a corresponding beverage preparation method. In particular, the beverage preparation machine and method allow accurate beverage volumes dispensed in receptacles as a response to a user selecting desired filling volumes, percentage or levels for receptacles having variant shapes, volumes, and/or materials.
From the state of the art, beverage preparation machines are known that use capsules containing beverage ingredients to be extracted or to be dissolved. Other beverage preparation machines use beverage ingredients, which are stored and dosed automatically in the machine, and are dissolved in a liquid, usually water. For both kinds of beverage preparation machines, the filling of the produced beverage into a receptacle, such as a cup or glass, is usually controlled in several different ways.
For example, the filling of a receptacle can be controlled by a controller based on several preset fill programs. According to one of the preset fill programs, a pump is activated and deactivated via a relay. As a drawback, a beverage preparation machine using this way of filling needs to be provided with a series of operating buttons, wherein each one of the buttons relates to a different beverage volume that is to be delivered into the receptacle.
Alternatively, the filling of a receptacle can be controlled by barcode recognition, wherein a barcode is typically provided on a packaged portion of a beverage ingredient packaging. When the barcode is read by the beverage preparation machine, a filling instruction—e.g. information regarding an ingredient type, a water volume or even a heating/cooling temperature—is transmitted to the beverage preparation machine. The beverage preparation machine then operates a pump according to one of several recorded programs based on the transmitted filling instruction.
As a drawback, neither one of the above described ways of filling a receptacle allows a user to freely select the desired filling volume in a simple manner and regardless of the type of receptacle.
Furthermore, the filling of a receptacle can be controlled manually, i.e. via manual activation and deactivation of a pump of the beverage preparation machine. The pump can, for example, be controlled via a button, a lever or some other kind of operating means. As a drawback, the user must remain attentive during the whole beverage preparation process, in particular during the filling of the beverage into the receptacle, in order to avoid spill over of the beverage. A further drawback is that the control of the desired beverage volume that is dispensed beverage is not very accurate.
It is moreover a problem that the receptacles of different users of a beverage preparation machine will typically vary in material, shape and/or volume. Thus, there is the need for a beverage preparation machine and a corresponding method, which are able to automatically fill any kind of receptacles with a desired beverage volume, i.e. to a desired filling level such as 50% full-filled or 70% full-filled or the like.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,458,735 discloses a device for automatically controlling the delivery of a beverage, such as a milkshake, into a receptacle made of translucent paper or foam. The receptacle is positioned under a source of radiation, which directs a light ray against the rim of the receptacle. The light ray passes through the receptacle, and is detected by a radiation detector, which is situated on the opposite side of the receptacle. The signal received by the detector is compared with a signal value level, and when the attenuated signal drops below the signal value level, the delivery of the beverage is halted. As a drawback, the device does not provide sufficient detection accuracy, in particular not for coffee receptacles, on account of the way in which the incident signal is detected and then compared. A further drawback is that the device is unsuitable to be used with translucent receptacles. Finally, another drawback is that the device does not allow choosing various fill volumes, i.e. filling levels of the receptacle.
WO 97/25634 discloses a method and a device for detecting the position of an object such as a container in a target window using the concept of triangulation of radiant energy. The device uses a first pair and a second pair of emitters and receivers, and uses a triangulation calculation to detect the presence of the container.
WO 99/50172 discloses a method for detecting and controlling the filling of a cup with a dispensing apparatus by using several light transmitters and receivers of light rays, which are reflected by the cup and by the liquid inside the cup, respectively.
PCT/EP08/054858 discloses a beverage preparation device having a touch screen showing a virtual representation of a cup, on which the user can move up and down a desired filling level, before the beverage dispensing process is initiated to fill the cup to the desired filling level.
WO 2006/063645 discloses a beverage preparation machine with an interface for selecting the filling level of a cup to be filled. In one embodiment, a marking means for indicating the desired filling level on a side of the cup is provided in the form of a user-operable laser beam emitter that forms displaceable visible spot on the inner side of the cup. The user-operable emitter cooperates with a receiver for detecting the presence of the beverage supplied to the cup, when the beverage reaches the desired filling level, in order to interrupt the supply of the beverage.
WO 2009/135821 discloses a beverage preparation device with a user interface allowing a user to select a desired filling level of cup. The interface comprises a means for detecting a position of a human finger and/or a hand-held freely movable pointing instrument adjacent to and pointing towards a side of the cup. The filling means are arranged to derive from the detected position of the finger and/or pointing instrument the user-selected level of fill and to fill the cup up to this level.
The presently disclosed and/or claimed inventive concept(s) is directed to improving the state of the art, specifically in view of the above-described drawbacks. In particular, the presently disclosed and/or claimed inventive concept(s) provides a beverage preparation machine (and a corresponding beverage preparation method) that can recognize receptacles of variant shapes, volumes, sizes and/or materials, and is able to allow a user to freely select a desired filling level or percentage regardless of the used receptacle in an easy and convenient manner. A further particular non-limiting embodiment of the presently disclosed and/or claimed inventive concept(s) is to enable a more accurate filling of a beverage into a receptacle with a desired filling level or percentage.